


Walk With Me In The Dark

by yuuago



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic)
Genre: Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Nightmares, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-07 06:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4252113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuago/pseuds/yuuago
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It happened months ago, but Hannu hasn't quite shaken off the memory of the dream. Luckily, he has Ville with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk With Me In The Dark

The water was cold.

Hannu pushed against the surface of the ice in the darkness, and it didn't budge. The frozen lake surface above him held, and so did the teeth, sharp wood that snapped tight and dug in to his clothing.

In the thin light that slipped through the hole in the ice, he could see the shadow of the monster holding him under. Its empty sockets stared at him, blank and sunk deep into its face, if what it had could be called a face. Its jaws tightened, and the rotting wood they were made of held tightly together when by all rights it should have fallen apart.

His lungs burned.

He wanted to breathe in. Couldn't. But the longer the monster held him under, the harder it was to hold it in. He scrabbled at the moose's bare wooden skull, flailing in the icy water for anything to latch on to, but the scrap wood holding the creature together continued to stay put, no matter how hard he tried to tear it apart.

The light under the lake was dim. It was getting darker.

The creature tensed, then turned its head and shoved him firmly against the surface of the ice. Hannu gasped, and instantly regretted it. Water filled his nostrils, his lungs. He'd have yelled if he could.

_Ville._ His grip loosened and he fell into the dark. _Ville, where are you?_

 

He woke up with a gasp to the sensation of someone patting his face, and a familiar voice that was growing more anxious by the second. "Hannu? Hannu! Wake up!"

It took Hannu a moment to realize where he was. Not under the ice, that was for sure. At home. In his bedroom. "I'm up, I'm up." Hannu opened his eyes and sucked in a breath, which wasn't easy. There was a weight on top of him, holding him down, but he knew what it was now. The room was dark, but slowly Ville came into focus, his shadowy form hovering over him.

"Are you okay?"

The room was cold, he noticed. He'd left the window open again. It probably didn't help the nightmares, Hannu thought as he gently pushed Ville aside. "Uh... yes. I'm fine. Don't lick me." 

"I didn't!"

"You did last time." He gave Ville another nudge, just to make his point. "You're going to have to get rid of those old habits. It's weird. Now, get off of me."

"Okay, fine," Ville said as he, much to Hannu's relief, finally moved off and stopped crushing him. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to him, looking down at him. The small amount of light coming in from the moon outside wasn't much to see by, but what it gave was enough to catch that the expression on his face was just as worried as his voice. "Are you okay?" he asked again. "You were talking in your sleep."

"Just a dream," Hannu muttered. He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing it out of his face. Paused for a second as just what he had said caught up with him. "A normal dream, I mean." It was better to be specific about it.

There was a long silence. Ville just watched him, looking as if he was trying to decide what to say. Hannu closed his eyes and listened to the familiar sounds of the house. It was enough to ground him. There was the sound of Ville's breathing. The ticking of the clock on the wall. The hum of the fridge in the kitchen. Wind outside. Normal sounds, real sounds. You aren't dreaming any more, he reminded himself, and all that other stuff is over.

But even if it was over, after that dream, there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep. Hannu opened his eyes and looked over at Ville, trying to be casual about it. "Is it time to get up yet?"

"Not yet," Ville said, glancing over at the alarm clock. "We don't need to be over at the bakery until two hours from now. Are you going back to sleep?"

It was earlier than he'd like. Way earlier than he'd usually bother waking. But the thought of trying to sleep wasn't at all appealing. Hannu remembered the dream, or memory, or whatever it was. Cold water, ice, and rotting scrap wood holding him under. Even if he probably wouldn't sleep deeply enough to start dreaming again, the last thing that he wanted was to take the chance that it would come back.

"No," he said. Sitting upright, he stretched, yawning. "I kind of wanted to get up early anyway." It was bullshit, and by the way Ville looked sideways at him in the shadows, he could guess that he saw right through it, but like hell was he going to admit to being nervous about going back to sleep.

"Okay." Ville leaned against him, shoulder to shoulder. There was something comfortable about his soft bulky form, something reassuring. Or maybe it was just that Ville was warm, and the air in the room wasn't. They'd really have to stop leaving the window open at night. "We have enough time for a hot breakfast," Ville said. "I could make you some eggs..."

I just woke up from the memory of being drowned by a moose, Hannu thought, and my dog - well, ex-dog - is offering to make me breakfast. Of all the turns he'd expected his life to take, that was not one of them. Instead of saying how absurd it was, he pressed his lips together and thought for a second. Then he looked at Ville.

"Do you think you can do it without burning the house down?"

"I've been getting pretty good at using the stove. I don't think you need to watch me any more."

"You set off the smoke alarm last time."

" _You_ did that," Ville said, pouting a bit. "I didn't have anything to do with it! I'll be careful."

" _Fine_." Hannu sighed and reached over to pat him on the head. Then, feeling the words creep up, he couldn't help but say it. "And... thanks."

 

Hannu flicked on the lightswitch and squinted as the light hit his eyes. The white tiles in the bathroom were too white. The light was too bright. 

The dream was still heavy in his mind. Cold water and a too-strong force holding him under. The darkness under the ice. Hannu frowned, glared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, then rolled his eyes and stripped off his pyjamas.

No point in thinking about it.

The dream was over. Both the Redtail's dream and the one he'd just had. It was all over, and it didn't matter. He was home, he was fine, and Ville was also fine, and that was it. Everything was just fine.

That didn't stop him from turning the water on to the hottest setting that he could stand.

It had been months. Aside from Ville, nothing had changed. In the first few days after the dream had ended, there had been hints that something had happened - Jonna had told him she'd had a dream that Ville was a talking moose. Paju had been more angry with him than usual, and unlike usual, she couldn't put her finger on why. She'd mentioned offhand that Tuomi had decided to take up playing the kantele. "I thought it would be better than when he was obsessed with his guitar, but it isn't. The constant plinking is driving me insane."

Aside from that, he got a few strange looks from people around town. Stranger than usual, at least. That was all.

Hannu rested his cheek against the cool tiles and closed his eyes. Nothing had changed, and that was good. But the dreams kept coming. Sometimes it was the swan. Other times, it was the ravens.

And sometimes, it was the monster, and the ice, and drowning.

He wondered if it would ever really stop.

 

The radio was on when he stepped out of the shower, the kind of light older song that the local station played when it was so early in the morning that no sane person would be awake.

Ville was singing to it.

It was strange enough to have a roommate. Hannu was used to being alone - well, not quite alone, but it didn't really count when the friend that he had lived with for five years wasn't able to talk back. But having a roommate who could talk back, and who used to be your dog, was another level of weird altogether. Hannu tried not to think about it as he pulled on his clothing, but the thought stepped into his head anyway. A few months ago, on a night like this, he'd have woke up to silence, or to Ville's wet nose on his cheek. He'd let Ville out, and if anyone would be doing the talking, it certainly wouldn't be Ville. Breakfast would be silent, a couple pieces of toast with coffee. He'd walk to work alone with his headphones over his ears.

Living with someone who talked to him took getting used to. But he didn't mind it.

It was Ville, after all.

Yawning, he made his way to the kitchen, following the scent of coffee. Ville was standing there, singing lightly as he grated cheese. After a second, he lifted his head and looked toward Hannu. "Good morning!" he said with a smile. "Feel better?"

"... Yeah. I do. Surprisingly, he actually did.

"Sit down, then. I'll get breakfast ready."

"You're sure you don't need me to watch you?"

"I'm sure!"

Ville looked confident enough. Fine, then, Hannu thought as he sat down at the kitchen table, wondering how in hell Ville could manage to make that happy puppy-like expression when he wasn't a dog any more. He pretended to be distracted by his phone while he waited, glancing up toward Ville every now and then. Just to make sure.

There wasn't any need for it. Ville knew what he was doing. He sang cheerfully under his breath as he cracked eggs in the pan, movements steady enough that it looked as if he had done it before. It was surprising, but maybe it shouldn't have been. He'd come a long way from the Ville that Hannu knew right after the dream, the Ville who'd said, "I don't know how to do anything," and by 'anything' meant _everything_.

He looked at the plate Ville set in front of him. Toast burnt to a crisp, just the way he liked it, and an omelette that didn't just look edible; it looked _good_.

Baking was one thing; Ville had taken well to his new job when he'd started work with the Kuikkas - at least after Joona and Jonna gave him some enthusiastic guidance. But this was another thing. "Who taught you how to cook?" Hannu asked as Ville sat down across from him with his own plate. 

"Paju did!"

"Paju?!" Hannu stared at him, fork halfway to mouth. "You're kidding. When?"

"On the days when you and me aren't working together," Ville replied. "It gets boring when you aren't here, you know, so I usually go to her place after she's finished at the school. She's been teaching me how to cook and how to do math and -" He stopped, looking down into his coffee. "... Did I do something wrong?"

"No." Hannu shook his head. He knew that look. If Ville's ears could have gone down, they would have. Then, more firmly, he said it again. "No. It's okay. You remember to lock the door when you leave?"

"Every time!"

"Then it's fine."

As he shoved breakfast into his mouth, Hannu tried to fight off the weird feeling climbing up his spine.

Ville watched him for a moment, then poured a mug of coffee and set it in front of him. "I think there's something wrong," he said.

"It's just weird."

"Weird?"

"Does she know that you're... you know?"

"Oh... No."

"Do you think she'll find out?"

"I hope not."

Hannu fell quiet. They both ate in silence, neither of them really sure what to say. He knew that tone in Ville's voice. It was a worried tone, that 'I don't know what to do' tone. He'd been hearing it less from him as time went on, but it was still there.

It would probably be there for a long time.

The toast was perfect charcoal. Ville had remembered that. Hannu wondered if he should be surprised that he got it right. He chewed and thought and ignored Ville's uneasy silence.

"You should keep seeing her," he said finally.

"Really?"

"Mmhm." He looked up, catching Ville's eye. There was a look of relief and happiness on his friend's face. "If she finds out, she'll be mad at me for lying about you, but who cares? And if she teaches you everything, then I won't have to do it."

"You don't want to be my teacher?"

"Nah. Besides, she'd be better at it, if you can stand her."

"Of course I can! She's nice!"

Hannu stopped. Put down his toast. Stared at him. "Nice?" Nice didn't exactly describe Paju. She was a lot of things - bossy, overbearing, anal retentive -

"She's nice to _me_." Ville had a satisfied look on his face as he said it. "You're just always saying things that you know will make her angry."

Can't argue with that, Hannu thought. But the problem with Paju was that everything made her angry. Everything except Ville, apparently. "As long as she doesn't drive you crazy," he said, smiling a little. "Then it's fine."

 

They walked to work in the dark. The sun wouldn't come up for a while yet. Hours. As they walked side by side, hands in their pockets, the ground crunched under their feet. They were the only people out; at that hour, it was too early. Most people wouldn't be leaving their houses, not for a while. That meant peace and quiet, aside from a few birds calling out to each other and Ville humming softly under his breath.

They could have talked, but they didn't. There wasn't anything either of them had to say that hadn't been said over breakfast. 

Hannu still remembered the dream, but that was all right. It was just a dream, and even if it came back, it was over.

With Ville beside him, everything was all right.

 

_End_.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. :)
> 
> I had some difficulty writing Hannu here, so if anyone would like to discuss post-canon characterization for him, I'd be happy to talk with you.
> 
> A Redtail's Dream is a pretty small fandom, and I'd also love to discuss the comic in general if anybody wants to. I can be contacted at my [personal fic archive](http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/), or my [personal DW journal](http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/), or on [tumblr](http://rukkilill.tumblr.com/).


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